SIU Med School Announces Research Symposium Awards

Nine medical and graduate students and resident physicians received top awards in the 16th annual Combined Research Symposium at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

Sponsored by the School and SIU's chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha, the symposium offers medical students, graduate students and residents an opportunity to gain experience in making formal presentations of their research findings. A total of 23 oral presentations were given and twelve poster presentations were displayed.

The top three projects in each category, as judged by a panel of faculty, received monetary prizes. The projects were judged on several criteria -- preliminary data and research approach, research design, project creativity, originality and the project's potential scientific or medical significance. Projects have faculty advisors who provided assistance.

The first place medical student winner was Catherine Gaffigan, a sophomore from Springfield, for her project, "Reactive Cortical Gliosis in Aged Ames Dwarf and Normal Mice." Her faculty advisors were Mary McAsey, Ph.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and Robert Struble, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology, psychiatry and neurology.

The second place medical student winner was Caren (DeGiacinto) Schaecher, a junior from Edwardsville, for her project, "Altered Expression of HuR, and mRNA Stabilizing Protein, Mediates Aberrant Placenta Growth Factor (PIGF) Expression in Preesclampsia." Her faculty advisor was Donald Torry, Ph.D., associate professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology and of obstetrics and gynecology. Third place went to Seema Afridi, a sophomore from East Alton, for her project, "Cortical Astroblial Variation During the Mouse Estrous Cycle." Her faculty advisor was Struble.

The first place graduate student winner was Parul Sikand, a pharmacology student from India, for his project, "TRPV1 Mediated Synaptic Transmission at the First Sensory Synapse." His faculty advisor was Louis Premkumar, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology.

The second place graduate student winner was Brandt Whitehurst, a medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology student from Springfield, for his project, "Regulatory Role of BEGF-A in Lymphangiogenesis." His faculty advisor was Sophia Ran, Ph.D., assistant professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology. Third place went to Fátima Pimentel, a pharmacology student from Panama, for his project, "Downregulation of TRPM8 by Protein Kinase C." His faculty advisor was Premkumar.

The first place resident physician winner was Dr. Chris Whelan, a urology resident from Cicero, N.Y., for his project, "Female External Genitalia Relationships to Fixed Bony Landmark." His faculty advisor was Dr. Patrick McKenna, professor of urology. The second place winner was Dr. Lisa Little, an obstetrics and gynecology resident from Danville, Penn., for her project, "Variation in Expression of VEGF and VEGF Receptors in Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines." Her faculty advisors were McAsey and Ran. Third place awards went to Dr. Lara Hammond, a urology resident from Minneapolis, Minn., and Dr. Paul Welch, an obstetrics and gynecology resident from Owatonna, Minn. Hammond's project is "Urologic Applications for Vacuum-Assisted Wound Closure." Her faculty advisor was Dr. Bradley Schwartz, associate professor of urology. Welch's project is "Correlation of Placental Perfusion and PIGF Protein Expression in Early Human Pregnancy." His faculty advisor was Torry.

Judges for this year's symposium were Dr. Jim LaGuardia, assistant professor of neurology; Rita Trammell, Ph.D., assistant professor of orthopaedics and rehabilitation; McAsey; Dr. Steve Evans, professor of neurology; Dr. Steven Soltys, professor and chair of psychiatry; Dr. Thomas Tarter, Ph.D., associate professor of urology; Ko Watabe, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology; Amy Arai, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology; Don Caspary, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology; Struble, and Torry.

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NOTE TO EDITOR: Seema Aafridi is the daughter of Dr. Abdul Afridi and Fahima Afridi, of Vancouver, B.C.; Catherine Gaffigan is the daughter of Ed and Chris Gaffigan of Springfield; Brandt Whitehurst is the son of Curt Whitehurst of Petersburg; and Caren (DeGiacinto) Schaecher is the daughter of Charles and Vickie DeGiacinto of Edwardsville.